Bravery, Friendship, and Witchcraft
by CatieCassHPBabe
Summary: Sirius and the rest of the Order try and console their friends after the loss of their loved one, but they also have to stop the Dark Lord. Can they do both? Please read and review! Much appreciated!


**Bravery, Friendship, and Witchcraft**

An adaptation of _Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix_

By: Cate Callahan

**Chapter One**

Twenty-two-year old Elizabeth Camden sat at her desk at home with her head looking down at her paper. As a famous musician, it was up to her to write the newest songs. Lucky for Lizzie, it was still her summer break.

Lizzie was a junior at Columbia University, where she was the drum major for the marching band, meaning she always conducted the show while they marched. She loved it, but sometimes her music teacher, Professor Ciccimaro, expected too much of her. He had no idea of her witchcraft, however, so she couldn't fully blame him. She was always fighting demons and Death Eaters (especially now, since Lord Voldemort had returned). She couldn't concentrate on her regular music, which made her angry. But then again, Lizzie was angry a lot.

A month before Lizzie and her husband Robert's wedding, which was the past Christmas Eve, her older brother, John, her absolute best friend, was killed by a demon. He intercepted a fireball that Lizzie could have easily stopped with producing a force field, or summoning it and throwing it back at him. Before she could do either of those things, however, John jumped in the way and was killed almost instantly. Even Robert, who was a White-Lighter, couldn't heal him.

Lizzie spent half of her time crying. She didn't mean to. She wanted to be happy with her husband, her best friends Kellie, Remus, Sirius, Harry, Ron, Hermione, and everyone else in the Order, but she didn't feel that she could. They tried to console her as best they could, but it rarely did any good. She could tell that Kellie, who was John's girlfriend, was feeling as much pain as she was, but was doing her best to hide it.

Lizzie was growing more and more frustrated. She couldn't come up with any new ideas for a song.

"Come on, stupid," she told herself. "You've done this a million times before!"

There was suddenly a loud _CRACK_ from downstairs.

"Oh God," she whispered. "Not now." She headed down the stairs, ready to summon her sword and fight whatever demon was down there. But when she saw who it was, she let out a sigh of relief and let her guard down.

"Hello, Lizzie," said Sirius. "I'm sorry. Did I scare you?"

"No," Lizzie said. "I was just a bit busy that's all. But that's all right. I was kind of looking for a reason to walk away from it."

"I see," Sirius answered. "You're trying to write a new song, aren't you?"

In spite of herself, Lizzie smiled. "Do you know everything?"

Sirius smiled back. "Maybe,"

Lizzie laughed. "So, what's up?"

"I actually just came to see how you were doing. Robert wrote to me using Harry's owl and asked me to talk to you, since you won't talk to him."

"I'm feeling better. I just can't really look at Robert right now. It reminds me too much of John, and how he was supposed to be the best man at our wedding and everything."

"He's your husband. I think he deserves to know how his wife feels."

Lizzie thought this over. Sirius was right. Robert did not deserve to be kept in the dark, much less by his own wife. "You're right," she said. "Is he at Grimmauld Place?"

"Yes," said Sirius. "Harry, Ron and Hermione are there too. They've all been asking about you."

"Okay, let's go."

When Lizzie and Sirius arrived at Grimmauld Place, she saw Robert, Harry, Ron, Hermione, Remus, Tonks, Alastor, and Arthur and Molly Weasley staring at them.

"Um…" Lizzie started to say. She looked at Robert, who looked away from her.

"Hi, Lizzie," said Harry, Ron and Hermione together. Everyone else greeted her warmly, but Lizzie was only interested in her husband.

"Rob, can I talk to you?"

"Whatever you like," he said.

She decided to get right to the point, no stalling. "Listen, I'm sorry for the way I've been acting. I know I should be able to move on, it's just that life without John—it just doesn't feel real."

"It's as if you're frozen," said Sirius from the table. "And the whole world's going on around you."

Lizzie beamed. Sirius really did understand.

"I know you're upset, Lizzie," said Robert. "I know what's in your heart. It's pain and anger. I feel it too. And so does Kellie."

"John was my boyfriend, Liz," said Kellie. "I loved him like crazy."

"We're all here for you, Lizzie," said Hermione. "Now that You-Know-Who's back, we're all in this together."

"Hermione's right," said Ron. "If we don't have each other, we don't have anything."

"I'm sorry, Rob," said Lizzie. "I love you."

"I love you too," Robert stood up and hugged her. Lizzie then went over to Kellie and hugged her as well.

"I'm sorry, Kell,"

"Don't be, it's not your fault," Kellie said, getting a bit teary.

After that there was a long silence.

Molly broke the ice. "Sit down, Lizzie. Would you like some coffee?"

Lizzie seemed to brighten a little. "Yeah, thanks, Molly!"

Molly set a cup of coffee down in front of her. There were a few moments of silence, and then finally Molly said, "I think we should all have something to eat. You must be hungry, Lizzie."

"Not just yet, Molly," said Sirius abruptly before Lizzie could answer. "Harry asked us a few questions about Voldemort earlier, and you refused to answer him."

"Oh don't start, Sirius," Molly moaned.

"Don't tell me what to do," said Sirius. "Harry has a right to know what's been going on. He should know every bit as much as we do."

"He's not a member of the Order of the Phoenix," growled Molly.

"Why should that matter, Mrs. Weasley?" Harry asked her politely.

"It matters, Harry, because you are _not _your father, however much you might look like him! Sirius seems to think that you're James Potter reincarnated, therefore, he thinks he can tell you everything under the sun!"

"I know exactly who he is, thank you for the update, Molly," Sirius snapped.

"I don't think you do! Why can't you just face the facts and know that Harry is not old enough to know too much?"

"Why can't _you_ face the facts and realize that I know what's best for Harry? I'm his godfather, not you! He is _not_ your son."

"Well, who else has he got, Sirius?"

"He's got me!"

"Well, be that as it may, it's been rather difficult for you to look after him while you've been locked up in Azkaban, hasn't it?"

_"Molly!"_ Lizzie said, stunned.

"How dare you?" Sirius said venomously.

"That was completely uncalled for, Molly," growled Alastor. "Now both of you _sit down_."

Robert looked at Sirius and motioned for him to go to the other room. Sirius, still fuming, obliged and turned away from the table.

"Molly was out of order," said Robert.

"Yes, I know," said Sirius.

"But if I could say something for Lizzie's sake here,"

"What does the arguing between Molly and me have to do with Lizzie?" asked Sirius curiously.

"Well, as John just—well, you know—"

"Yes?" Sirius interrupted, for Robert's eyes seemed to sparkle with tears, as they did so often, like his wife.

"It upsets her. Any kind of tension will set her flying off the handle. Especially now. Whether she cries or yells and screams or both. Can't you two just try to keep yourselves calm…at least until Lizzie and Kellie get back on their feet?"

Sirius pondered this. "I'm sorry, Robert. I just tend to get angry when people bring…well…that up."

"And I would too!" said Robert quickly. "I never denied that. I just mean, Lizzie said to me at John's funeral, 'We have to be there for each other. If John saw us fighting all the time, he'd hate it.'"

"I'm sure he would," said Sirius. "All right, let's go back in."

When they entered the room, they found that Lizzie had gone. "Where'd Liz go?" Asked Robert.

"Upstairs," said Kellie. "She said she forgot something the last time she was here."

Robert and Sirius looked at each other, worried. "Oh no," Robert said, and he and Sirius ran upstairs.

"I'll check everything on this level, you check up there," said Sirius.

"Okay," said James.

Sirius ran into all the rooms but Lizzie was nowhere to be found. Finally he found her sitting on the bed in one of the spare bedrooms, looking at a photo album. Sirius knocked on the door.

"Lizzie? Are you all right?"

"I'm fine," Lizzie lied, quickly closing the book and putting it aside. "I just forgot my album up here the last time I stayed.

"Ah," said Sirius. "Well, come on down. Molly's making stew, if you want any."

"Thanks. I'll be down shortly." Lizzie's eyes started to fill with tears again.

"Lizzie?" said Sirius again. He seemed afraid that he had said the wrong thing. "What's wrong?"

There was a long pause and then Lizzie finally said, crying, "When will it stop hurting? I keep telling myself that the pain will go away, but it doesn't. I could have stopped that demon. Hell, I _should_ have stopped that demon. But I was too proud and too goddamn confident to realize that my brother was standing right there!"

Sirius crossed the room and hugged her. "Your brother was a great man, Lizzie. You're going to make him proud."

Lizzie gave a watery smile and said, laughing slightly in spite of herself, she picked up the photo album, which was full of pictures of her, Kellie, John and Robert. "Well, take a look at this. You never saw John with red, white and blue hair did you?"

Sirius laughed but looked confused. Looking at the picture, he said, "You did that?"

"Yeah," said Lizzie. "I was nine. He played a prank on me, which I hated, so at two in the morning I got up and covered his hair in ketchup, mayonnaise, and that blue-colored hairspray stuff you find at the Halloween store." She laughed even harder.

"Wow," said Sirius. "I bet he didn't like that."

"No not really…he yelled at me all day,"

"There's a happy memory," laughed Sirius sarcastically.

Suddenly Arthur came to the door. "Sorry to interrupt you two," he said. "But Molly's just finished making the stew. If you don't want to come down, she'll save a plate for you."

"No, it's okay, I'm coming Arthur," said Lizzie. "Thanks."

"All right then," Arthur responded. He left the room.

"Thanks, Sirius," she said. "That helped a lot."

"No problem, Lizzie," Sirius said, smiling. And they went down to dinner.


End file.
